Clap Your Hands If You Believe In Fairies
by Sarah's Crack
Summary: Mandy tackles both Halloween and Election Day in a mere evening. Talk of gay marriage and Proposition Eight, so if that offends, steer clear. Takes place in the Mandyverse, after the events of When I Was A Child and the other fics featuring Mandy.


**Title**: Clap Your Hands If You Believe In Fairies  
**Author**: Sarah :)  
**Pairing/Characters**: Logan/Veronica  
**Rating**: PG  
**Spoilers**: Through 2x22, _Not Pictured_, just to be safe, but nothing specific. This is futurefic!  
**Word Count**: 1,230  
**Summary**: Mandy tackles both Halloween and Election Day (and all of the issues involved therein) in a mere evening. I don't know how she does it, either. ;) Talk of gay marriage and Proposition Eight, so if that offends, steer clear.  
**Disclaimer**: Not mine. Duh.  
**Final notes**: This was written spontaneously in an LJ comment text box for **afrocurl** as a fic or treat gift. Not betaed or anything, since, you know, I wrote it inside a comment box. Heh. Part of the Mandyverse, so without reading those, it probably won't make sense.

--

"Trick or treat!" The small blonde girl shot a dazzling smile at the elderly woman that opened the door she was standing in front of.

"Why--look at you!" The woman exclaimed as she reached for a bowl of candy. "And who are you dressed up as tonight, honey?"

"Peter Pan!" Mandy Echolls grinned widely at the woman. "I wish I could really fly, though. Do you have any fairy dust?" She stood up on her tiptoes and tried to peek in the bowl.

The woman laughed. "I'm sorry, Peter, but candy'll have to do." She dropped a few pieces into the bright orange pumpkin Mandy held out. Without skipping a beat, Mandy held another bucket in front of her and nodded at the people in the back of her. "Can I have some for my little br--"

"Oh, goodness!" The woman interrupted, finally noticing the two adults standing on the step, one of them holding a baby. "What a gorgeous child! Now," she looked down at Mandy, and added some candy to the second bucket. "Who go to pick their costume first, you or your little sister?"

"I knew it," Logan muttered under his breath as Veronica shifted baby Sammy in her arms. "I _told you_!"

Mandy giggled delightedly. "That's not my sister! It's my brother. His name is Sammy, and he's dressed up as Tinkerbell, and this is his first trick-or-treating _ever_, and I hope he's having lots of fun!"

"Oh." The woman looked surprise. "Well that's...nice."

"I know!" Mandy smiled. "Mommy said that the norm...norm...norm'tive attitude toward gender roles is really 'pressive, and that we shouldn't be afraid to make things different. I dressed up like Peter Pan 'cause I think he's cool, and I don't _care_ if he's a boy, 'cause not every boy is yucky. Just LOTS of boys are yucky!"

"Oh. Uh, I guess so..." The woman smiled politely, if not a little strained, and moved to shut her door.

Mandy shook the plastic buckets she held. "Thank you for the candy! Sammy would have trick-or-treated you when you opened the door, too, but he's really little, and it's lots past his bedtime." She paused for a moment and scrunched her face in thought. "And 'cause he doesn't know those words yet. But mostly 'cause he's sleepy!"

"Which, speaking of, I think it's about time for all little fairies and lost children to be heading home, don't you?" Veronica said, stepping off of the porch and nodding her thanks to the woman at the door.

"Noooooooo, Mommy! Not yet!" Mandy pleaded, skipping down the stairs and keeping a few steps in front of her parents. "I need more candy!"

"Well, okay, Mandy," Logan broke in, shaking his head ruefully. "It's too bad, though."

Mandy stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at her father. "What's too bad?"

"Well..."

"Daddy, _tell_ me!" She implored, voice full of desperation.

"If you don't stop trick-or-treating, then we can't go home so you can try some of that candy you got. It'd be a shame for it to go to waste, especially after all those nice people gave it to you..."

"Daddy," Mandy said, suddenly serious. "I changed my mind. We should go home _now_."

Logan looked at Veronica, his eyes twinkling. Relieving Mandy of the treat buckets, he nodded at her. "Good call, sweetie. Let's go tally this loot."

"Yeah!" Mandy agreed, falling into step between her parents. As the group slowly made their way home, Logan sighed and looked at Veronica.

"For the record, ninety-eight percent of our neighbors now believe we have two daughters, thanks to the costume-selection process that I wasn't invited to participate in." He frowned, and leaned over to peer at Sammy's relaxed, sleepy face. "You don't look like a girl, do you, Sammy?"

"Daddy!" Mandy stomped her foot on the ground. "Sammy is crushing gender stare'types, duh. Like me! He _wanted_ to be Tinkerbell!"

Logan looked down at his daughter. "He told you that?"

"Duh," she repeated, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"Veronica?" He raised an eyebrow.

"It's true," Veronica confirmed.

"Yeah, Daddy," Mandy chimed in. "Sammy drooled on that costume _lots_ more than the other ones! And he thought the wings were pretty."

"Ahh. Of course. The drool test. How could I have forgotten?" Logan smiled. "In that case, I stand corrected."

"Good. Sammy and me want to ed'cate people about this stuff," Mandy told her father. "Social issues like these are really, really 'portant, 'specially for next week."

"Next week?" Logan looked puzzled.

" 'lection Day, Daddy!" Mandy shouted, a horrified expression on her face. "You _are_ going to vote, aren't you? Aren't you?" Her voice rose hysterically.

"Well, of course, sweetie, but—"

"And you have to vote no on prop'sition eight, Daddy, or else no one will be able to have two mommies or daddies, and they'd be sad, and it would be really bad!" Tears formed in her eyes. "People are mean!"

"Oh, Mandy." Veronica moved Sammy to one arm so she could place a comforting hand on her daughter's head. "Don't get upset. We talked about how sometimes people think different things, and—"

"But they're _wrong_, Mommy! You told me! It's not fair!" Mandy stared up at her parents, wide-eyed. "I have one mommy that I love lots, and one daddy that I love lots. Having two would just make me have _more_ love. Why is that bad?"

Logan sighed and set the candy buckets down on a nearby park bench, pulling Mandy into his lap. "You got me. " He turned to Veronica and gave her an amused look. "You do realize that, thanks to you, our eight year old daughter knows more about this stuff than most adults."

Veronica grinned. "I know. It's great, isn't it? Mandy's going to change the world, aren't you sweetheart?"

"Yep!" She shouted. "And Sammy can help. And then he can marry a boy if he wants, and his kids will have two daddies, and I'll get to play with BABIES, and it'll be awesome!"

"Mandy, I don't think—"

"DADDY!" She gasped. "Sammy and his husband can have as many babies as they WANT!"

"Yeah, Daddy," Veronica mimicked. "This is 2008. Get with the program." Seeming to know the conversation was about him, Sammy picked that moment to start wriggling around in Veronica's arms and trying to eat the fairy wings he was wearing. "Although, Sammy's babies with two daddies are going to have to wait, because I think he needs to go to bed soon."

Logan shook his head and smiled. "So what you're saying is that I need to vote or else I'm letting my cross-dressing, potentially future homosexual infant son down?"

Veronica nodded. "Exactly. That, and I think he's tired."

"Oh. Well, then. Why didn't you just say so?" Logan smiled and tickled Mandy's nose, then began to stand, ready to go the rest of the way home. "Thanks for explaining it to me so well so I could make an informed decision, pumpkin."

"You're welcome, Daddy!" Mandy exclaimed, jumping off of his lap. "When you wanna talk about who you should vote for for president, you know where to find me!"

Logan laughed loudly, and bent down to kiss his wife. "I love our life," he whispered into her mouth.

"You know what? I kind of do, too," she said, winking at him.


End file.
